It’s the end of summer, though Labour Day weekend is still a week off. Sunflowers are everywhere, corn is piled high, tomatoes are finally tasting as tomatoes should, and suddenly the colours have shifted almost imperceptibly from high summer into something warmer and richer.

This table began with the April Cornell sunflower runner, whose wonderfully loose design looks almost as though someone took a box of pastels into the garden and started drawing. Sunflowers, rudbeckia and other late-summer flowers tumble across the fabric, interspersed with little birds. There’s even a wonderfully exuberant jug of flowers near one end.

With so much going on in the runner, the rest of the table really only needed to pick up its colours.

A burlap cloth provided a neutral background, while dark woven chargers grounded the place settings.

From there, I layered a Vietri Leaf Dinner Plate, A Belk Yellow Salad plate topped with a vintage brown oak leaf Majolica dessert plate. The combination complemented the sunflowers as well as the brown background of the runner.

The emerald green goblets add another strong note of colour. I love how they pick up the green in the runner and keep all that yellow and brown looking fresh.

And then there were the birds.

I had these little birds tucked away, and they were simply too perfect not to use. Perched on grapevine “twig” napkin rings amongst folds of sunny yellow napkins, they look as though they might have flown straight off the runner and landed at each place setting.

For the centrepiece, I kept things very simple: a generous bunch of sunflowers in a plain cream pitcher. With flowers that cheerful, elaborate arranging seems beside the point.

It all feels relaxed and slightly rustic—just right for eating outside at this time of year.

And eating outside is precisely the point, because late summer has its own particular bounty.

This week I’ve been making the most of corn and tomatoes, beginning with Rigatoni with Corn, Tomatoes and Bacon. It’s exactly the sort of thing I want for dinner at this time of year: full of fresh produce, but substantial enough for an evening when the air has begun to cool.

And for another outing for that irresistible corn-and-tomato combination, there are Tomato, Corn & Basil Tarts with Cheddar Pastry.

The tarts take a bit more time than the pasta, but that cheddar pastry makes them well worth the effort. Make the rigatoni on a busy evening; save the tarts for a leisurely weekend.

Corn, tomatoes, sunflowers and a few cheerful birds—it’s difficult to think of a better way to enjoy these last generous days of summer.